Sports and Activities in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (III)

Sports and Activities in Dubai, United Arab Emirates: Al Badia Golf Club – Breezy Creekside course at Festival City

Just south of the new Festival City development, this striking modern course, designed by Robert Trent Jones II, makes the most of its natural location close to the Creek, with lots of water features (including 11 lakes) and an environmentally sensitive use of modern shrubs and plants.

The course itself incorporates a variety of teeing angles and hole lengths to suit both serious and recreational players (offering an overall course length of between 5398 and 7303 yards), while the various water features and sometimes windy conditions offer a further challenge.

The eye-catching modern clubhouse is also home to various state-of-the-art practice facilities and specialized golfing clinics including the TaylorMade Performance Lab and SAM PuttLab.

Sports and Activities in Dubai, United Arab Emirates: Aquaventure – Watery thrills and spills at this state-of-the-art waterpark

Located at the vast Atlantis resort on Palm Jumeirah, the spectacular Aquaventure waterpark is the newest and most state-of-the-art in the city, featuring all sorts of unusual and exciting ways of getting wet.

Centrepiece of the park is the dramatic “Ziggurat”, featuring the stomach-churning “Leap of Faith” waterslide, 27.5m tall and 61m long, at the bottom of which you're deposited into a transparent underwater tunnel surrounded by a lagoon full of sharks. Other attractions include assorted master-blasters, water-coasters, speed slides, inner-tube rides and power-jets, all guaranteed to get the heart pounding.

Less adrenaline-hungry visitors will enjoy the park's assortment of gentler rivers and rapids, and there's also a well-equipped children’s play area. Entrance prices also include use of the impressive stretch of adjacent private beach.

Admission costs 200dh (165dh for children under 1.2m; or 250/200dh adults / children including The Lost Chambers; free to in-house guests; plus exorbitant locker rental at 40dh).